Stl file pdegplot in App designer

Hi,

I am looking for a solution to find names of the faces after importing the stl file. pdegplot command does that but how can I use it in App Designer. I am trying the command but it throws different error. Looked for a solution but it isn't available.

Is there any other command where i can use it to see name faces in the App designer so that i can use it to apply BC.

Thanks,

Jigar

[Cris LaPierre]

What error are you getting? Please share all the red text.

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

> pdegplot command does that but how can I use it in App Designer?

pdegplot does not have an input argument or property to specify the parent axes. This often poses a propblem in AppDesigner and uifigures in general since the default HandleVisible property in uifigures is 'off'. This prevents pdegplot from finding the axes within the uifigure resulting in the generation of a new figure external to the app.

I suppose this is the problem you're running into.

This workaround describes how to temporarily make the app's axes accessible and current so that the pdegplot will add content to the existing axes.

Here's a quick example. See the previous link for details.

% Mimick an app
app.UIFigure = uifigure(); 
app.UIAxes = uiaxes(app.UIFigure); 

% Change handle visibility
origState = app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility; 
handleVisCleanup = onCleanup(@()set(app.UIFigure,'HandleVisibility',origState));
app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility = 'on'; 

% Make axes current
set(groot, 'CurrentFigure', app.UIFigure)
set(app.UIFigure,'CurrentAxes',app.UIAxes)
  
% Plot pdegplot
g = [2	 1      1     1      1     1      1     1     1     4     4;
    -1	-0.6   -0.5  -0.4   -0.5   0.4	  0.5	0.6   0.5  -1	  0.17;
     1	-0.5   -0.4  -0.5   -0.6   0.5    0.6   0.5   0.4   0.17  1;
     0	-0.25  -0.35 -0.25  -0.15 -0.25  -0.35 -0.25 -0.15  0    -0.74;
     0	-0.35  -0.25 -0.15  -0.25 -0.35	 -0.25 -0.15 -0.25 -0.74  0;
     0	 0      0     0      0     0      0     0     0     1     1;
     1	 1      1     1      1     1      1     1     1     0     0;
     0  -0.5   -0.5  -0.5   -0.5   0.5    0.5   0.5   0.5   0     0;
     0  -0.25  -0.25 -0.25  -0.25 -0.25  -0.25 -0.25 -0.25  0     0;
     0	 0.1    0.1   0.1    0.1   0.1    0.1   0.1   0.1   1     1;
     0	 0      0     0      0     0      0     0     0     0.75  0.75;
     0	 0      0     0      0     0      0     0     0     0     0];
 pdegplot(g)

[Cris LaPierre]

The relevant doc page is found here: Display Graphics in App Designer

[Adam Danz]

Thanks @Cris

Note that the solution I recommend takes two additional steps than the doc example "Use Functions with No Target Argument".

1. It records and restores the original HandleVisible value rather than assuming it was "off".
2. It programmatically makes the selected axes current. This is particularly useful when the app has more than one axes or if another figure+axes exists.

[Jigar]

Hi @Adam Danz and @Cris LaPierre, thanks for your inputs. Below is the error I encountered while executing the code:

Error using pdeigeom
Index in position 1 exceeds array bounds.

Error in pdegplot>plotTwoDGeometry (line 113)
d=pdeigeom(g,1:nbs);

Error in pdegplot (line 100)
        hh = plotTwoDGeometry(g, plotVertexLabels, plotEdgeLabels, plotSubLabels);

Error in app1/UpdateButtonPushed (line 100)
            createGeometryPlot(app);

I tried with your Matlab code:

function createGeometryPlot(app)

% Mimick an app

app.UIFigure = uifigure();

app.UIAxes = uiaxes(app.UIFigure);

% Change handle visibility

origState = app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility;

handleVisCleanup = onCleanup(@()set(app.UIFigure,'HandleVisibility',origState));

app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility = 'on';

% Make axes current

set(groot, 'CurrentFigure', app.UIFigure)

set(app.UIFigure,'CurrentAxes',app.UIAxes)

% Plot the geometry using pdegplot

pdegplot(app.smodel, 'FaceLabels', 'on', 'FaceAlpha', 0.5);

end

what did I miss? Also I am using R2022a. Thanks again for your inputs.

[Adam Danz]

Let's get some more information about app.smodel.

What is it?

class(app.smodel)

How was it created?

Can you share the reproduction steps so we can create it?

[Jigar]

Sharing properties and methods that i have created.

    properties (Access = private)
        new_x % Description
        new_y
        new_z
        range_z
        stlFile
        smodel
    end
    
    methods (Access = public)
        
        function results = func(app)
            app.smodel = createpde('structural','static-solid');
            importGeometry(app.smodel,app.stlFile);

            face_in_geom = ;
      

        end
        function createGeometryPlot(app)
            % Mimick an app
            app.UIFigure = uifigure(); 
            app.UIAxes = uiaxes(app.UIFigure); 
            % Change handle visibility
            origState = app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility; 
            handleVisCleanup = onCleanup(@()set(app.UIFigure,'HandleVisibility',origState));
            app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility = 'on'; 
            % Make axes current
            set(groot, 'CurrentFigure', app.UIFigure)
            set(app.UIFigure,'CurrentAxes',app.UIAxes)

            % Plot the geometry using pdegplot
            pdegplot(app.smodel,"FaceLabels","on","FaceAlpha",0.5);
            
            
        end
    end
    

    % Callbacks that handle component events
    methods (Access = private)

        % Button pushed function: FileuploadButton
        function FileuploadButtonPushed(app, event)
            [filename, pathname] = uigetfile({'*.stl'},'File Selector');
            if ~isequal(filename,0)
                app.stlFile = fullfile(pathname,filename);
                %app.stepFile = fullfile(pathname,filename);
                [F,~] = stlread(app.stlFile);

                % Do something with F and V   
                x=F.Points(:,1);
                y=F.Points(:,2);
                z=F.Points(:,end);
                min_x=min(x);
                min_y=min(y);
                min_z=min(z);
                app.new_x = x-min_x;
                app.new_y = y-min_y;
                app.new_z = z-min_z;
                Max_point_z = max(app.new_z);
                Max_point_x = max(app.new_x);
                Max_point_y = max(app.new_y);
                app.FileNameLabel.Text = filename;
                app.SummaryTextArea.Value = sprintf(['File uploaded successfully!\nMax_point in z direction = %f \n' ...
                'Max_point in x direction = %f \nMax_point in y direction = %f \nPlease click on Update button'],...
                Max_point_z,Max_point_x,Max_point_y);
                app.SummaryTextArea.FontColor = 'b';
                app.FileuploadButton.BackgroundColor = [0.98,0.88,0.85];
                app.UpdateButton.BackgroundColor = [0.86,0.95,0.82];
                
                app.UpdateButton.Enable = "on";
                
                
            else
                app.SummaryTextArea.Value = 'File upload failed.';
                app.SummaryTextArea.FontColor = 'r';
                app.FileuploadButton.BackgroundColor = [0.86,0.95,0.82];
                app.UpdateButton.BackgroundColor = [0.98,0.88,0.85];
                app.FileNameLabel.Text = "File Name";
                
                app.UpdateButton.Enable = "off";
                
            return;
            end
        end

        % Button pushed function: UpdateButton
        function UpdateButtonPushed(app, event)
            %pdeplot3D(app.smodel,"ElementLabels","on","FaceAlpha",0.5);
            %app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility = 'callback';
            createGeometryPlot(app);
            %app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility = 'off';
        end
    end

[Cris LaPierre]

Using Adam's solution, I created the following callback function in app designer that loaded and displayed an STL file in an axes component in my app.

function FileUploadButtonPushed(app, event)
    [filename, pathname] = uigetfile({'*.stl'},'File Selector');
    app.stlFile = fullfile(pathname,filename);

    model = createpde;
    importGeometry(model,fullfile(pathname,filename));

    % Change handle visibility
    origState = app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility;
    handleVisCleanup = onCleanup(@()set(app.UIFigure,'HandleVisibility',origState));
    app.UIFigure.HandleVisibility = 'on';

    set(groot, 'CurrentFigure', app.UIFigure)
    set(app.UIFigure,'CurrentAxes',app.UIAxes)

    pdegplot(model,"FaceLabels","on")
end

My blank canvas looks like this

When I launch the app and select an stl file, it looks like this

[Jigar]

Thanks so much, it is working. It seems i cannot use pde as property and use it in other function.

[Cris LaPierre]

Could you provide more details about what you mean? You have no variable named pde, and pdeplot is a function, not a property.

In the code I shared, you could make model an app property, and use that in other functions.

[Jigar]

editing

I take my words back. It is working with an app property. Thanks for all the help!

[Adam Danz]

Glad that it all worked out, thanks for the demo @Cris LaPierre!